State Rep. David Baria and Howard Sherman, husband of famed actress Sela Ward, qualified to run for the seat currently held by Republican Roger Wicker.

“I want to give voters a true choice, and I plan to spend the campaign listening to voters and working hard to earn their trust,” Baria said in a statement. “I appreciate all of the encouragement and support that I have gotten during the time leading up to this decision.”

“I think somebody’s evidently put lightning in a bottle, and we are trying to get lightning to strike here,” Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Moak said, noting Democratic upset wins in Alabama and elsewhere. “We saw Alabama (Doug Jones) and then the month after that we saw what happened in Virginia, and we see 34 contested legislative seats and voters wanting a change. I think there’s local energy and there’s state energy and people want to talk about the real issues.”

From left, Howard Sherman, Annabella Sherman, Sela Ward and Austin Sherman attend the premiere of 'The Stepfather' at the School of Visual Arts Theater on Monday, Oct. 12, 2009 in New York.(Photo: Evan Agostini, AP)

Sherman, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, is a newcomer to politics. He and Ward, who have two children, founded Hope Village for Children. Sherman has an economics degree from Claremont McKenna College, where he studied under Peter Drucker, and an MBA in New Venture Management from Harvard Business School. He is CEO of Inventure Holdings, LLC.

Baria, a longtime Democratic state lawmaker from Bay St. Louis, has said he was considering a run. National Democrats started recruiting him after Democrat Doug Jones defeated Roy Moore in Alabama. Moore won a hotly contested Republican primary against former Alabama Lt. Gov. Luther Strange.

National Democrats saw a potential parallel with Mississippi and Alabama if McDaniel entered the race. Moore defeated the establishment Republican candidate who had the backing of most of the state’s GOP and President Donald Trump, but his radical views — and ultimately controversy surrounding accusations of improper relationships with young girls when he was in his 30s — cost him the general election.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and national Democrats originally tried to recruit Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley to challenge Wicker. Presley said last month he would not run, and Baria became the odds-on favorite.

Baria currently serves as leader of the House Democratic Caucus in the Mississippi Legislature. His name has been mentioned for statewide office repeatedly. The closest he came to running was just after Hurricane Katrina, when he opted against a run for governor or lieutenant governor.

Baria, an attorney, was elected to the Mississippi Senate in 2007. In 2011, he decided to run for the Mississippi House after his Senate district grew more heavily Republican.